Torrent

I woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath, the dream still as real as if it had just happened. I was peacefully walking along a beach when suddenly I had this overwhelming sense of urgency to turn and look at the ocean. As I slowly turned to face the peaceful water, I saw a wave bigger than I ever thought I was capable of imagining appear out of nowhere; before I could even gasp a breath of air it engulfed everything in sight. As I lay in bed, drenched in sweat, I began to cry because I realized that the dream embodied everything I've been feeling for the past week or so.

I've always known the chinks in my spiritual armor, the weak spots that Satan picks at in his cunning little way and for the most part I know how to thwart his sneaky attacks because he and I have been battling each other for years. But Satan is sneaky and conniving and lately he has been tempting me in a way that is very foreign but surprisingly not that uncomfortable to me. Just when I thought that I knew where all the vulnerable parts of my life where hidden, he took a sledge hammer and went straight for my gut. As I've been battling the evil suddenly enveloping my life, I've felt as though I've been sucked under a giant swirling wave. No matter how I grasped or clawed my way to the top I knew deep down inside that nothing short of a heavenly intervention would save me.

This morning in our staff prayer time our leader brought us into our devotional time by reading to us from Psalm 141. As I sat there listening, my soul silently gasping for air, I began to feel the Lord's almighty hand reach into the swirling wave to fish me out of the torrent. As we prayed I felt the waves part and the air hit my face as I took that first breath of clean fresh air.

If I am honest with myself, I know that I am not out of the water yet but I do know that I am in capable hands.

O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me.
Hear my voice when I call to you.

May my prayer be set before you like incense;
may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD;
keep watch over the door of my lips.

Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil,
to take part in wicked deeds
with men who are evildoers;
let me not eat of their delicacies.

Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;
let him rebuke me—it is oil on my head.
My head will not refuse it.
Yet my prayer is ever against the deeds of evildoers;

their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs,
and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.

They will say, "As one plows and breaks up the earth,
so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave. "

But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD;
in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death.

Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
from the traps set by evildoers.

Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by in safety.

Psalm 141

Your thoughts?